


If I can’t have you

by Harringroveboys



Category: Grey's Anatomy
Genre: M/M, Major Character Injury
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-30
Updated: 2021-03-13
Packaged: 2021-03-16 09:46:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 16
Words: 21,481
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29080326
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Harringroveboys/pseuds/Harringroveboys
Summary: This is being reposted from my old orphan account Vkookmin1When disaster strikes for Nico and Levi, can they keep their relationship afloat?
Relationships: Nico Kim/Levi Schmitt
Comments: 22
Kudos: 43





	1. Chapter 1

It had been a long day for Levi Schmitt. A collision between two lorries had resulted in a pile up on the highest and as a result series of major traumas had started heading into Grey Sloan memorial hospital and the interns had been kept on their feet. When they could finally stop, another patient would arrive and the process would start all over again.

What Levi was most concerned about was a young boy who had just arrived at the hospital. His parents car has been hit by a lorry trying to avoid the pile up. His parents had been killed instantly but the boy was still alive with multiple broken bones and lacerations. What drew Levi to this boy, however, had been how much he reminded Levi of himself when he had been that age. Quiet, nerdy. The type of person who say in the back of the class and was such overlooked.

That's how Levi found himself sitting with this boy, Lucas, for the past hour, allowing him to cry into his shoulder and grieve for the parents that he had lost at such a young age. It was at this point, one half of the hospitals ortho God duo made themselves known by sticking his head around the curtain that surrounded Lucas' bed.

‘Your boyfriend planning on making an appearance anytime soon Levi? I paved him over an hour ago and the cases that need to be looked at by ortho are beginning to pile up,' Link grumbled quietly, conscious of the young boy sniffling into Levi's shoulder.

'He's still not in? I texted him over a hour ago and he said he was on his way. Are you sure you haven't just missed him in the corridor?' Levi whispered back, one hand running circles into Lucas's back while the other went to his back pocket of his head in search of his phone. Pulling it out, he flicked it on to find the selfie Nico had taken of himself and saved as Levi's lockscreen staring back at him.

'I've got nothing from him, Link. Do you think something's happened to him?'

'Right now, I really don't know kid'

'Dr Lincoln, Dr Bailey sent me. She said an ambulance is on its way in with one of ours' Helm said, looking as pale as a sheet. Levi tried to catch her eye, wanting, no needing to know who of their own was. Needing the reassurance that it wasn't Nico.

'Helm, who is it? Who's hurt?'

'Nico, sir. And they said it's not looking good.'

Levi's feet pounded the floor of the corridors as he raced from Lucas's room on the third floor down to the ambulance bay. All that he could think was 'Nico's hurt. Nico needs me'. How could he have been so stupid? He knew that Nico came across that highway. Knew that there were still cars that continued to crash into the pile up, unable to see due to early morning fog and unable to stop due to the rain that Seattle had seen last night.

The elevator was taking too long so Levi took the stairs , taking two at a time. He took a moment to consider the irony that this had been the most physical exercise he had had in a while and allowed a small smile at the thought that Nico would have been proud of him if he had been here.

When he made it to the emergency room, he discovered that Helm had timed it perfectly when taking him about Nico. An ambulance was in the bay and the body of an unconscious male with dark hair was being unloaded. Levi knew, even at the other end of the ER that this was his boyfriend and darted his way across the room to him.

He would later deny this but as soon as he saw Nico up close, he almost fainted. All he could see was blood coating Nico's face and body, his right leg twisted at such an angle that Levi had to wonder if he would ever be able to walk on that leg again. His arms were not much better, the bone of the right arm having broken the skin of the forearm.

'Levi! Jesus Christ, Nico!'

Levi could faintly heat Linc in the background, could feel him move forward to help transfer Nico from the ambulance. He started when they rolled the Burney past him and into the emergency room, throwing instructions left and right. He followed, not daring to let Nico out of his sight. That he being there was the only thing keeping Nico on this earth and by not being there, he would be more responsible than he already felt.

'Dr Schmitt? Dr Schmitt, look at me!' Levi turned his head to look blankly at the Chief of surgery. 'You are going to be no good to Dr Kim by standing here and looking like a puppy who lost their bone. Go to your locker, get changed and then go to the family room. I'll send someone up to be with you when we can spare them.'

Levi couldn't make it to the family room. He changed in the locker room not feeling anything but something that he had never felt before. Fear. Sure he has felt fear before like when he broke both his arms or when he had been forced to be the rubber in the school sports day and had feared the laughter and ridicule of his classmates. This was a different type of fear. Fear of loving and losing someone. Losing Nico when their relationship was still so new to him and knowing he had barely attached the surface of his feelings for the ortho fellow. His knees went from under him and he slid to the floor, the corner of the locker digging into his back and wept. Wept while only two floors down, his boyfriend was fighting to stay alive.


	2. Chapter 2

Levi didn't know how long he sat in the locker room, knees curled to his chest so he could hide his face in them like when he had been five and hide from a thunderstorm in his wardrobe. His mum had found him two hours later at the back of the confined space muttering to himself that it would all be over soon. Here he was, twenty years later doing the exact same thing.

While this little mantra had been going around Levi's head, Taryn had slipped quietly into the room and sat down next to him. For once, she didn't try and fill the silence, seeming to know that Levi would simply prefer her mere presence rather than her usual noise. Instead, she pulled a wad of tissues out of the pocket of her scrubs and handed them to Levi, who took them and began to dab at his streaming eyes.

He didn't know how long they stayed like that, just that they were interrupted by the arrival of the other interns who spilled in through the door but stopped short when they saw Levi and Taryn on the floor.

'Oh God. What's happened?' Dahlia said, the confusion clear in her voice. It was obvious that the news of Nico had yet to get around the hospital.

'He's probably gone and one upped himself by dropping something worse than his glasses in a patient and is about to have his ass handed to him.' One of the other interns managed to snigger out.

'Oh shut up Fred. Like you're having a good day. I saw you with the laceration girl in the ER. You couldn't even stitch that up. At least Levi can actually do his job.' Casey snapped.

Levi gave a watery smile to Casey as he and Dahlia ushered the other interns out despite the protest that this was just as much their space. Dahlia then pulled a blanket out of the storage cupboard and wrapped it around the still crying Levi while Casey unlocked his locker and started to pull crisps and chocolate out.

Taking the food that Casey held out, Levi could feel Dahlia glancing over at him, clearly wondering what had got him so upset that he had been reduced to a weeping mess on the floor of the locker room.

'It's Nico,' was so that he managed before bursting into fresh tears. A soft gasp was heard, whether it was from Dahlia or Casey Levi was not sure but the one thing he was sure of was the three sets of arms that surrounded him. That made him feel safe and cared for.

'You want me to tell them everything?' Taryn asked knowing that Levi would struggle. He nodded silently and listened as she explained how Nico had gotten caught up in the pile up. How broken he had been when he had been brought in by the ambulance.

'Has anyone told you anything since he was brought in Levi?'

He shook his head. 'I haven't come out since Bailey told me to come up here and get changed,' he shocked out. He hadn't even managed some basic instructions. 'Oh god, she told me to go to the family room after changing, what if someone went there looking for me and I wasn't there. They'll think that I abandoned him. That I ran at the first sign of trouble. Oh god , oh god, oh god.' Levi could feel himself panicking, on the verge of hyperventilating. His friends voices were faint in the background, their voices just white noise. And then there was a new voice, several voices in fact. There was a female telling everyone to back off and give him space. That had to be Dr Bailey. Great, he was making a fool of himself in front of the Chief of Surgery. There was another voice that sounded like Link and he could vaguely make out a blond haired figure crouching in front of him. Oh god, there was red on the front of Links scrubs.His training told him that it must have been bad. Orthopaedic surgeons having that much blood on their scrubs was bad and Levi knew that he to be Nicos blood as Link was the only other orthopaedic surgeon on shift. That knowledge sent him spiralling deeper and deeper into what seemed to be a never ending tunnel of darkness. He felt arms pick him up in an attempt to move him. Why were they trying to move him? He remembered being told that it was a bad idea, yet he was being moved whilst in the middle of a panic attack.

His surroundings changed from the bright and harsh lighting of the interns locker room to a dimmer room with what seemed to be the rhythmic sounds of machines that he usually associated with patients rooms in ICU while doing a night shift.

Eventually, his breaths began to slow after what felt like an age and when his vision came into focus, his eyes took in the scene in front of him. Jo was staring down at a chart, glancing at the monitors every few seconds to double check what she was writing in the charts. Link was curled up like a cat next to him, cheek squashed into his hand as he slept. Why was he here? Why had he been brought here of all places in the large hospital? Then his brain caught up with the rest of his body and he saw who was lying in that bed. It was Nico and the rhythmic and reassuring noise he could hear was the sound of Nico's heartbeat


	3. Chapter 3

'I was thinking of holding some sort of coronation to crown myself '

Is all that sleep deprivation going to your head Levi? Crown yourself king of what? Seattle Grace? Cause I'm sure that Bailey would love to take you up on that challenge.'

'King of the ICU ward of course!'

Of course, Levis bad luck continued to prevail as it was at this moment that the Cheif decided to stick his head through the door of the room.

'Dr Helm, a minute please?'

Taryn quickly stood up, smoothing down the wrinkles in her scrubs before following Alex out into the hallway

'Do I need to be concerned about Dr Schmitt at all, Dr Helm? Because I'm already down an orthopaedic fellow and it would be nice to not lose an intern on top of that, especially one like Schmitt.'

'Honestly, sir, I think he's going a bit stir crazy. He won't leave Nico in the state that he's in because he's afraid that something will happen. He's barely eating the food Link and I bring him and I don't think he's sleeping much either.' Helm confessed, glancing in through the window to watch Levi take hold of Nico's limp hand while looking close to tears.

'Yeah. Hunt told me before he told the rest of you lot. He's got a long way to go if he ever wakes up.'

Helm felt a shiver go down her spine as she recalled that meeting. How Hunt explained the severe trauma that Nico's body had endured and was still enduring. How there had been severe internal bleeding caused by the insoles shrapnel that had almost been impossible to stop. How the bleed in his brain could have killed him.How his leg and arm bones had been so broken that it had taken Link almost five hours to repair the damage. How there was still no guarantee that he could walk again let alone work again as a surgeon. His chances of surviving were next to none.

But yet Levi held out hope. Hope that Nick would wake up. Hope that Nico could learn to walk again. Hope that the love and support that Levi would be offering at every step of Nico's recovery would be enough.

But so far there has been no such luck. Taryn and Alex watched through the window as Levi pulled a tissue from his pocket and blew into it.

'I should probably get in there and get him out before he becomes a walking contamination zone.'

You do that. Tell me if there's any change at all.'

'Yes sir.'

As Taryn opened the door, Levi looked at her with his best watery puppy dog eyes and Taryn felt her heart shatter. Her heart told her that Levi was too kind to be suffering this kind of pain and that she should wrap him in a blanket and shield him from the world until Nico recovered enough to take over. Because that would be more of a boyfriend role than a best friend in her book.

But for now, all she could do was to go against her heart and pull a protesting, crying Levi from the room. His cries of how he shouldn't be leaving Nico on his own in case something went wrong. After 5 minutes of looking like she should have her licence revoked, she achieved in getting Levi to the cafeteria and sitting him down at at Table with Casey and Dahlia.

'I'm going to go and get some food for us. Keep an eye on him you two and make sure he doesn't try and leg it back to the boyfriend.'

'Aye, aye Captain' Casey replied with a small smile before turning his attention to Levi who was sitting with his head held low and seemed to be paying more attention to his hands than his friends.

'Levi?' Casey heard Dahlia whisper and he watched as Levi lifted his head up to look at her with watery eyes.

'I know what you are going through is something that No one should have to do. Watching someone you love suffer means that you put them first but it does not mean that you can abandon yourself to whatever happens. Nico needs you now more than ever but you can't be there for him if you wont eat or sleep properly. So what you are going to do is eat whatever Taryn bring back and puts in front of you. Then you are going to go home with Casey and have a shower, get a good few hours sleep and get some clean clothes in. And before you protest about Nico being alone, we've got that covered. Everyone has signed up to sit with Nico on their breaks and we've scheduled it so that everyone s breaks overlap and they take over directly from whoever is with him. Is that clear?'

Levi nodded and have Dahlia a small smile. His friends were with him and that was all that mattered. He and Nico were not going through this alone.

It was five in the morning when Levi thought he heard something. He'd been curled up in a chair by Nico's bed, head curled around Nico's limp one when he heard it. He hadn't been sure at first if he's actually heard but a few seconds later, there was another slightly louder noise. And it was coming from Nico. Levi rubbed the sleep from his eyes hoping that what he thought was happening was actually happening.

The next thing he knew, Nico's eyes slowly peeled open and a groan of pain escaped him. Levi could see the confusion in his eyes and the pure and utter panic that appeared when he realised where he was. His eyes started roaming the room frantically, looking for something that was familiar. Levi pressed the nurses button and moved into Nico's line of vision before he started to move the rest of his body and cause further damage.

When his eyes landed on Levi, the relief that flooded them sent a wave of calm through Levi. He still remembered him. The brain damage that they had all been worried about was not there. He was okay in that sense at least.

Before he knew it, the room was flooded with people, Amelia and Link among them. 'How you holding up, Nico?' Link said from the end of the bed, affection clear in his voice, while Amelia ran several checks on his friend. 'Like hell,' Nico groaned back.

'Well, there seems to be no serious damage, so I'll be able to get some pain relief sorted out for you.' Amelia said, nodding to one of the nurses to administer it. As Amelia said this, Levi saw Nico's features tighten in pain and knew that the pain of the many injuries Nico had sustained were starting to take their toll.

As the pain relief worked its way into Nico's system, Levi slipped his hands into Nico's and have it a light squeeze. Nico turned his head towards him and have him a weak smile. 'Hey babe,' he said.

Levi responded with a weak punch to his forearm, one of the only areas of Nico's body that wasn't injured and muttered back 'Don't you dare scare me like that again, Nico Kim, or I swear to god that I will break up with you.'

'You wouldn't dare. You love me too much for that.'

'Just try me Nico, just try me.'

'Alright, lovebirds, let's break up the gooey doe eyes for a second. I need to borrow my fellow for a minute,' Link smoothly interrupted. When Levi opened his mouth to protest, he jumped in with 'Don't you worry your pretty little head, Schmitt, it's just going to be a few routine checks to make sure Nico here is going to be okay for physiotherapy in a few weeks because unless I sign off on him, your boy is going to be stuck here for a long time and to be quite frank, I need my top fellow back with me. I'm pulling less girls and too be quite frank, I don't like it.'

'Don't you have a hot neurosurgeon to be pursuing or was that just something that my mind dreamed up for me while I was out?'

'True, true, now stop getting me to avoid the subject and let me hit you for a reason.'

As Link poked and prodded to test his handiwork, Levi backed to the corner of the room to give them space and watched as they teased each other relentlessly. Nic o seemed happy, his eyes drifting over to Levi every few minutes as if to ensure that he was still there and hadn't abandoned him. Levi sent him reassuring smiles and breathed a sigh of relief. Things could only be looking up from here.


	4. Chapter 4

He was fine. He was sitting and talking like nothing had happened. Like he hadn't been involved in a life threatening car crash less than a week ago. But Nico couldn't fool Levi. Levi who spotted when he winced as he shifted in his bed. Levi who noticed when he tended as Link examined the cage that surrounded his leg, keeping his bone straight. Levi who would gently wake him up and hold him when he had cried out in his sleep and let him soak the material of his jacket as he cried.

God, he knew he was lucky. Many would kick a guy while he was down and just leave him alone for the ride. He still remembered Billy, one of the football players back in high school who was diagnosed with cancer just a few weeks before prom. His girlfriend, Anna, had dumped him almost as soon as he told her and to make it even worse for him, she turned up to the prom on the arm of his best friend. But Levi wasn't like Anna. Levi had stayed while Anna had ran. Levi loved him, even though he had never said those words out loud, he loved him, Nico Kim, enough to stay with him in the hard guy. God did he love the small, clumsy intern curled up on a chair next to time. But perhaps the snoring made him love home just slightly less.

He was tracing patterns into Levi's hand, which had been resting on the bed, when he heard the creak of the door. He looked up to see Taryn and Dahlia slipping into the room. He gave them a small smile as they crept their way over to where a sleeping Levi lay. They gently picked him up between them and with a quick glance and nod directed towards Nico before leaving the room. They were probably going to get him home and in his own bed, which was probably a good idea in Nico's book. He lay, staring at the ceiling for a few minutes, before allowing himself to drift into a dream less sleep.

Levi woke up to discover that he was not where he has fallen asleep. All the things his mum had taught him as a young boy about kidnappings and abductions ran through his mid, terrifying the word out of him until Taryn hustled into the room, holding a breakfast tray that smelled like Levi's idea of heaven. As Taryn set the tray down on the bed that Levi occupied, he took the opportunity to take in his surroundings at which point he realised that they were not as unfamiliar as he has initially believed. In fact, he recognised where he was, having slept here on a number of occasions.

'Taryn, my dear and wonderful friend, care to explain to me why I'm currently in my boyfriends bed despite having fallen asleep in the chair next to his bed.'

'Long story short, my midget friend, is that Dahlia, Casey and I decided that the best way to get you to stop trying to outstink the Yetis was to kidnap you and bring you here, purely out of convenience because it's so close to the hospital.'

Levi pulled a face at Taryn, an action that he knew was childish, before grabbing the first food item that his hand can into contact with off the tray, which happened to be a croissant, that judging by the temperature, was fresh from the oven. Letting out a shriek of pain, Levi dropped the croissant to the bed getting crumbs all over the duvet, something that Nico would kill him over if he ever found out about it, and providing Taryn with the opportunity to let out a cackle of laughter that Levi was sure that she saved especially for haunting him in his nightmares. As she wiped the tears from her eyes, her phone chimed with an incoming message. Levi watched her as she pulled it from her back pocket and watch her face drain of colour.

Levi didn't react initially when he saw Taryn's face. He sat there for a few seconds, his mind racing through the endless possibilities of what could have occurred to make his friend react like that. His mind kept falling back to Nico but his boyfriend had been fine the last time that he had seen him, laughing and smiling. And even then, Amelia had said that his scans were fine and that there was nothing internally that they needed to be concerned about. But he knew it had to be about Nico. Nothing would have made the blood drain from Taryn's face that fast and have her look at him with sympathy clear in her eyes.

Before Taryn could register what he had planned, he launched himself across the bed, arm outstretched out in an attempt to grab her phone. Unfortunately, his athletic prowess decided to make an appearance and he tumbled over the edge of the bed, having gotten his feet tangled in the sheets of the bed. Cursing as he attempted to untangle his feet, he saw Taryn power down her phone, slip it into her back pocket and, with a large sigh, walk over and help him get back onto his feet.

'Taryn, please tell me what happened. I know it's about Nico so please don't try and lie to me.'

'The thought never even crossed my mind,' she responded dryly. Levi poked his tongue out at her, his gratis lighting up for a split second before a serious expression came over them.

'Please, Taryn, just tell me. No joking about it or dodging around the topic. Just tell me.'

'I'm sorry Levi, but I honestly think that I shouldn't be the one to tell you. I mean, I haven't even got all of the information. Casey texted me and that's all that I know. Don't you dare walk out on me Levi Schmitt.'

This last part was spoken to Levi's back as he marched to the door and yanked it open. He could hear Taryn's footsteps behind him and her voice calling out to him, although what she was saying was unclear to him. He slipped into his shoes and moved to take his car keys before they were swiped out of his hands.

'Taryn, what the hell?' He could hear himself saying before he felt himself getting bundled into his smal, battered Ford Fiesta. Taryn slid into the drivers seat and as the engine was turned on, stated 'As if I would place my life in your hands and let you drive to the hospital in this state. I value my life far too much for that.' Levi didn't respond, just watched her put the car in gear and pull out of the driveway.

By the time they reached the hospital, Levi was becoming frantic again. He opened the car door and leapt out of the car before Taryn had a chance to pull the car to a stop. He could hear Taryn calling him again but the only noise that was filling his ears was the sound of his trainers on the floor as he ran into the hospital and traced the familiar route back up to Nico's room.

As he got closer he could hear shouting and the sound of people running. He reached the door in time to see Nico's bed getting transported out of the room and wheeled off in the direction of the OR. For a brief second, he caught a glimpse of Nico and his knees almost bucked. His boyfriend was pale and seemed to be a completely different person from the man who had been laughing with him just a few hours before hand He made a move to follow them before a pair of arms grabbed him. He struggled against the arms before twisting round to see Link looking at him with tear filled eyes. Before Levi had a chance to even open his mouth, Link jumped in with 'I'm sorry Levi, he had a seizure. A bad one. We have a serious problem on our hands.'


	5. Chapter 5

Levi felt numb. It been only an hour since Taryn had received that fateful text and he had raced to the hospital. An hour since he saw the love of his life getting wheeled towards an OR looking lifeless. A hour since he had felt the most terrifying emotion he had felt in all of his twenty six years. The fear of losing a loved one. He wasn't prepared for being the strong one in their relationship, both physically and mentally.

But the overriding feeling was guilt. Guilt that he wasn't there when his boyfriend had needed him. That when Nico had looked for someone to hold his hand and tell him that everything would be okay, he was sleeping away in his boyfriend's bed without a care in the world. This guilt dominated his thoughts, tuning out anyone who tried to comfort him. He didn't need comforting. He hadn't been the one to suddenly start to seize. But no one seemed to understand.

He'd been staring at the swirling pattern of the floor for at least 10 minutes when he felt something hot being pressed into his hand and his other hand coming up automatically to secure it. He glanced at the object in his hand to reveal a steaming cup of hot chocolate and then his eyes shifted to the person who had placed it in his hands. An exhausted looking Atticus Lincoln was looking at him with a ghost of a small smile. Levi returned the smile before shifting his gaze back to the floor and taking a small sip of the hot chocolate, taking care to not burn his tongue. He barely registered Link's voice as he started to speak.

'Levi, it's not your fault. You need to realise that.'

Levi let out a short of disgust and let out a undignified response of 'Yeah right '.

Link sighed. He knew Levi could be a stubborn man when he wanted to be, it was one of the features that he and Nico shared. Link sent a quick thanks to which ever god had been responsible for placing him for a year with one of the most stubborn men known to man kind before crouching down in front of Levi. Levi's bespectacled eyes came up to meet his and Link noticed with a sinking feeling in his gut that the spark that usually had such a prominent place in those eyes seemed to have gone out.

'Levi Schmitt. There is plenty of opportunities for you to sit around and feel sorry for yourself but I'll be cold in my grave before I allow you to feel sorry right now.' Link could feel Levi's confused gaze gouging a hole in his skull but he kept on speaking. 'You need to realise that Nico would have had that seizure whether you were there or not. And I'm sure Amelia will tell you this later but even if you had been there, you couldn't have done anything to stop it. Hell, if Amelia had been there, she couldn't have stopped it and she's the head of neuro. So you can do Nico a favour by kicking his ass for me when he gets back from surgery for me okay?'

Levi have a small nod of the head in response, scared that if he used words, his body would betray him and he would break down even more than he had already over the last few days. Thankfully, Link seemed to understand without Levi and stood up from his crouching position in front of him, sat in the seat next to him and wrapped his arms around him, pulling him into his chest. Levi responded by taking a shuddering breath and nuzzling into Links chest.

They had only been sitting like this for what felt like a few minutes but in reality was nearly two hours. During that time, both Levi and Link had been almost comatose, barely noticing if someone walked past. The only movement that came from either of them was when the elevator doors would open and both figures would snap to attention, their faces making it clear as to who they were waiting for. But each time, they would sink back into their chairs and wait for the elevator.

Eventually, their prayers were answered and as the elevator doors rolled open, Amelia stepped out followed by a team of nurses rolling Nico out of the confined space. Amelia stepped towards the both of them and opened her mouth to begin speaking when she was suddenly drowned out by the sound of a group of angry people. They all turned towards the sound of the noise to find a situation that would have been funny under different circumstances. A pack of people was striding towards them headed by a tall Korean man and an almost equally tall female that Levi thought was European. Following this group was a flustered looking Miranda Bailey and a concerned looking Alex Karev. The pack reached Amelia, Link and Levi and the woman tapped ours sharp 'Are you Amelia Shepard?' All Amelia could do was nod her head while maintaining a stunned expression on her face.

'Excellent,' the woman said, seemingly failing to notice Amelia's expression. 'We are looking for information about one of your patients that I believe you have just operated on. He's our son, Nico Kim.'

####

Amelia had been the first to recover from the initial shock. That was one of the only things that Levi would recall when he looked back at this day. She had immediately jumped into action and hustled the family along to a private room to explain and calling back to Link to come and join them.

Levi just stood there, shock and horror clearly evident in his expression as Alex moved into his line of vision with a concerned look on his face. 'Did you ring them?' Levi whispered, clearly too low for Alex as a blank look was displayed on his face. He repeated it, louder and with anger seeping into his tone and Alex nodded. Levi noticed that he had the decency to look ashamed of himself.

'Why?'

'What the hell do you mean why? Schmitt, as much as it must hurt you to hear, you are not his family. We have a duty of care to Nico as well as you and we had a duty to inform the family of what happened.' Alex stated, arms across his chest, daring Levi to challenge him.

Levi gulped and replied, 'I meant, why did you call them. Surely it should have been me. I mean I am his boyfriend. It surely would have sounded better coming from me rather than you.'

Alex sighed heavily and Levi could see the answer forming in his head as he opened his mouth. 'Schmitt, I honestly appreciate what you just said, but it's been almost a week and you made no move to try and contact the family not did you give any indication that you were planning to. What the hell were we supposed to think? That Nico would make a miraculous recovery and be out of here in a month without his own family knowing. I'm sorry Levi but the seizure means that Nico can be classed as not being medically fit to make his own decisions regarding his health.' It was at this point that Levi opened his mouth to protest but Alex gave him no such opportunity, choosing instead to plow on with what he was saying. 'I know exactly what your about to say Schmitt, and clearly your not in the best state of mind to be doing any such decisions for Nico. Because if you were thinking straight, you would remember that hospital policy states that Nico would have to formerly declare you as his next of kin but since you are not married and Nico has yet to declare you as his next of kin I'm afraid any medical decision regarding Nico will have to be made through his family. Do i make myself clear?'

Levi nodded meekly, while attempting to blink back tears, not wanting to appear weak in front of Alex. Muttering a small apology to Alex, he darted off towards the toilets before tears started to stream down his face. He didn't know why it was such a big deal for him that Nico's family had come. It had been completely illogical if they hadn't been called considering the lack of Nico's next of kin in the area but the thought of someone other than him caring for Nico made his heart clench. It was selfish, he knew, but he would have to swallow his pride and accept what was happening.

#####

Min-jun couldn't quite believe it. His little brother who never stopped moving, who you could hear coming from a mile away, was lying still in a hospital bed looking pathetically broken. He was hooked up to machines, half of which he didn't know the function of and they made his giant six foot one brother look like a child.

'God I don't think I've ever known a time where he's been this quiet before ' Min-Jee whispered.

'There was that time he was experimenting with different types of glue, decided to taste test them and glued his mouth shut instead,' Min-jun replied, watching his older sisters eyes light up as she laughed at the memory.

'That's very true. God, did I enjoy that half hour.'

They were interrupted by a crashing sound outside in the corridor and watched as a young man stumbled into the room, red as a tomato and pushing his glasses up his face embarrassingly.

'Who the hell are you?'

'I'm Dr Schmitt, one of the doctors here.'

'If your looking for one of your superiors, they're talking to our parents in one of the conference rooms.

'Oh no, no. I'm actually just off duty at the moment,'

'Why are you here then,' Min-jee replied, suspicion clear in her voice.

'I'm Levi.... His boyfriend.'

'I'm sorry then. I think you have the wrong room. Our brother has a girlfriend”


	6. Chapter 6

Levi could feel the blood drain from his face and was sure that if he hadn't been holding onto the back of a chair, he would have lived up to his name of Glasses and do something that would have not only have embarrassed him but the whole of Sloan Grey. Stuttering, he backed out of the room before turning and running before they could see the tears that were forming in his eyes. 

He barely managed to get to an empty on call room before the tears stared to fall and he fell to his knees. Had Nico been lying to him all this time? It was true that they had only just defined the relationship in terms of calling each other boyfriends but Levi had at least thought that Nico wouldn't have got bored of him that quickly. Or even worse, been using Levi as something on the side while having a relationship with another person, least of all a woman. A woman? All that about coming out to his family and the crap that he had to put up with by being an member of the LGBT community and Asian. It must gave all been an eloquent lie to rope Levi in, confuse him into thinking that he had feelings for this man and then just leave him out in the cold. 

But while he was thinking all of this, he barely noticed the door opening and Alex slip into the room causing him to startle when Alex placed a hand on his shoulder. Embarrassed at how he must have looked with his curls sticking out at odd angles, glasses at a jaunty angle on his nose where he had pushed them to get at his running eyes underneath and a nose keeping up a steady stream of snot. All in all he looked as good as he felt. 

Alex placed a hand on Levi's shoulder and guided him over to the bed in the corner of the room. The bed creaked loudly as he was pushed on to it, almost as if it was protesting at carrying any sort of weight, even something as light as Levi. A tissue was then placed into his hand and Levi brought it up to dab at his streaming eyes. He felt the bed dip and creak even further as Alex sat down next to him and pulled him into his shoulder where he buried his head, like he used to do with Nico. And the wall that has been building up to this point, preventing the tears that had yer to come, broke and all Levi could do was sob into his seniors shoulder.

####

Min-jun was prepared to kill his little sister and he swears to high heaven in later retellings of this story that the only thing that was preventing him from doing so was the bed and machinery that made up most of the room and almost guaranteed that he would have made a fool out of himself if he had tried. Min-jee has sat there with that glint in her eye that he knew from years of being of the receiving end that she was up to no good and was prepared to bowl down anything that was standing in her way.

'What the hell?' He burst out as he watched the intern run from the room before turning to his sister. 'What the hell was that for? You heard him! Don't pull that face at me, I know you did. If what he says is true and he is Nico's boyfriend then he has a right to be here and you know it.'

Min-jee just stood up from where she had been curled up on a hard, white hospital chair, brushed some dust that only she could see off her bright green skirt and leaned in towards Min-jun. 'You don't even know the half of it, big brother. I'm doing this for everyone, Nico included. Call it a big sister thing for Nico. From what I know about that boy, he's trouble. And this family will be much better off without him in the picture.' She whispered as though she was keeping it a secret from the one person that it would affect most but who could not hear and could not respond.

####

Link could barely feel the coffee burn his throat as he swallowed his freshly brought coffee as though it was a life line. The bleak grey doors of Grey Sloan Memorial loomed up in his line of vision and he sighed as he crumpled up the now empty coffee cup and flung it towards the nearest bin. Link heard it miss, heard it bounce into the cracked pavement and as he veered towards where the sound had come from , he found himself walking straight into someone. Great, he was now seemingly stuck in a twisted version of a rom-com. As if his life couldn't be crappier.

He found himself mentally correcting that statement. His life could be crappier. Of course it had just been his luck to slam into Nico's mother of all people. As he stared to apologise, stumbling over his words multiple times in the process, he felt her reassuring hand on his arm. Somehow, and Link wasn't quite sure why, this simple gesture from someone that should be needing support from him in her time of crisis rather than this seemingly twisted version, saw him start to take deep, steadying breathes and clear his mind enough to see what was going on. Nico's mother was there in front of him, her hand placed reassuringly on his forearm, her eyes gazing directly at him. A chilly wind was blowing causing her cheeks to flush red and her hair to billow in the winter. Link smiled at her and opened his mouth to say something.

But she got there first. 'Is there somewhere private that we can go?' Link blinked for a second, bewildered and confused. What on earth did Nico's mother want to speak to him about? Why him and not one of the many doctors who were actually treating her son and were therefore much more well equipped to deal with any of her questions? He nodded silently and she stepped aside, indicating for him to lead the way. 

When they eventually stopped, he turned and looked at her with an eyebrow raised. She sighed, 'It's about Nico. He isn't insured. We can't afford for him to continue having treatment.'


	7. Chapter 7

'What the hell do you mean he doesn't have insurance? Of course he does!' Link burst out, unable to keep his emotions in check. Nico's mother took a step back, clearing not expecting such a furious reaction from one of her sons closest friends. 'Are you going to answer me or not? He never gave any signal that he was struggling so what the hell is going on here?'

Aida took a while to answer, fiddling with a loose thread in her sleeve before looking at Link and nervously licked her lips. 'You're right, at least about Nico not showing that there was a problem. He probably looked like that because he didn't know that there was a problem.' Seeing the look of utter confusion upon Links face, she continued with her explanation. 'When Nico turned eighteen, his father and I knew we needed to get him on his own health insurance. We persuaded him to let us sort out his insurance, as he was already having to pay his own way through Med school and we thought it unfair to put him under any more financial pressure than he already was. But the insurance company we used went under a few months ago and we're still trying to regain the money from that let alone look for new insurance. And now once they find out that he's not insured.... they... they won't treat him anymore. And you.. you saw him in there... just so broken and not like my Nico.'

The look of pure anguish on Aida's face broke Links heart. He rushed forward and engulfed her in his arms, wanting her to know that he knew and he understood and he didn't blame her. He could feel her shaking in his grip, fearing for the son she was in danger of losing. And as he raised his eyes to look at the sky, he caught sight of the stocky figure of Miranda Bailey heading towards him. He swallowed nervously, feeling his mouth dry up. Whatever Bailey had to say, it was not good.

##########

Holding his hot cup of coffee close to his body, Levi took a deep breath and swung the door of the coffee shop open, bracing himself for the breath of icy air that hit him and the never ending flow of people outside the coffee shop. Thus had always been the worst part of Levis day. His small frame and innocent, mouse like appearance had done little to help in a city where the people had moved at a thousand miles an hour and never seemed to slow down to help those that needed it. This meant that he had nearly always ended up with his coffee cup empty and his clothes drenched in coffee every time he had reached the hospital. Until he had met Nico. Thanks to his boyfriends six foot frame and ice cold stare that would scare off the bravest of men, Levi could reach work with his coffee still in his cup and not on his clothes. 

Levi shook himself out of his daydream, realising that he was getting several stares from other customers within the coffee shop, having stood at the door and let the cold air blast into the shop. Muttering an apology, he slipped out of the door and onto the street, shrinking in on himself to make him less of a target for the potential elbow and coffee combination.

Halfway through his semi jog to the hospital, he heard the shrill ring of his phone cut through the crisp air like a knife. Feeling the glare of several passerby's, he hurriedly pulled his phone out of his pocket and looking at the ID of the caller. He could feel the blood drain from his face as he saw that the name flashing on his screen was Atticus Lincoln. Biting his lip and feeling his heart break just a little, he rejected the call.

#####

Link cursed as he paced up and down the halls of the hospital. Amelia, curled up in one of the hospitals tiny white, plastic chairs, threw him a dirty look before stretching a hand out towards her pacing boyfriend. 'Link, for heavens sake, stop with the pacing. Your driving me crazy and frankly, you will wear right through that floor.' 

Link threw her a disgruntled expression before turning and continued with his pacing. Amelia grabbed his hand as he passed her and pulled him into the chair next to her. The force at which Link landed in the chair caused the plastic to bend and threaten to snap and Amelia found her boyfriend gripping her arm for dear life, threatening to cut off the blood supply to her arm and hand. She gently prised his hands off her arm and instead slipped it into her hand. With her other hand, she gripped Links chin and brought his head up so their eyes were locked. Amelia could see the tears threatening to fall from those ice blue eyes and she let go of his hand to bring her hand up to his face and gently push a stray lock of hair away from his face. 

"I'm scared, Amelia," Link whispered, the tears present in a slight crack in his voice. Before Amelia could open her mouth to respond, she saw Aida rush out of a room and start to scream.


	8. Chapter 8

The screaming seemed to block out everything else. The machines beeping, the people talking faintly in other rooms even the sound of shoes squeaking on the floor as nurses raced towards the source of the screaming. All Link seemed to be able to do was swivel his eyes between the screaming mother of his fellow and best friend and the door from which she had emerged. He knew Aida and knew that she was not the type of woman that screamed for no reason. Which meant that something was wrong with Nico. He started to frantically scrambled out of his chair, needing to know what was going on. Needing to know that he could do something to help Nico, even if it was just holding his hand. There were suddenly hands pulling at him, arms surrounding him and pulling him back. Link tried to lash out, tried to reach that door that was preventing him from getting to his best friend. Those around him seemed like splotches of colour on a canvas. But one splotch made him stop in his tracks. This splotch had glasses held on his head by red string and was in the process of dropping his coffee on the floor.

########

Levi almost didn't understand what was going on. His brain was processing that there was a steady stream of people running into Nico's room, orderlies rapping out instructions that they could probably do in their sleep. What Levi's brain didn't seem to process was the why. What had happened in the several days that he had been away from Nico's bed? 

Despite not being one that believed in God and miracles, tending to be one that put his faith into science, medicine and cold hard facts, Levi couldn't help but think that this was God giving him some kinda of Karma for being such a terrible boyfriend and letting his boyfriend be alone all this time. 

He snapped out of his little montage to see Link take a staggering step towards him. Both he and Amelia left forward to catch him as he tumbled forward. Levi took this as an opportunity to start chiding himself. He must be such a bad boyfriend if his boyfriends best friend was falling apart more than he was. Link looked Levi dead in the eyes and Levi could almost feel the hatred burn through him. "Care to explain what you'r doing here Schmitt? Last time I checked, you left him to fend for himself and left the rest of us pick up the pieces.'

Levi looked like a kicked puppy at those words. Lost for words, he stood there opening and closing his mouth like a fish while tears filled his eyes. Amelia gave Link a hard stare before brushing past him and gathering the small man in her arms. As she did so, a small tear slipped from Levi's eye and the next thing that Link knew, he was gasping for air and seemingly about to go into a full on panic. 

'I can't lose him, I can't,' he wailed. 'I'm sorry, Link, for making you think that I abandoned him but I was confused. I promised him that I wouldn't leave him but I did because of a lie. A lie that I was stupid enough to believe and I am so, so, so sorry.' 

Link felt a wave of sadness hit him and he quickly closed the small gap between him and the hug that was occurring and wrapped his arms around them both. He could feel Levi shaking beneath him and he hugged him tighter. Clearly whatever had happened in the past few days had been something that was enough of a bombshell for a loyal, loving person like Levi to doubt himself and what existed between Nico and himself. But Link knew that he had to be there for both of them now. 

######

Miranda Bailey looked on in sadness at the man lying on her table. Here was yet another of her surgeons, another person that she was supposed to protect and didn't. She had barely even known the man and she was guilty for it. Guilty about not getting to know this man better, a man that seemed to be deteriorating with every passing hour.

"Someone care to tell me where Shepard is?" She snapped at an intern nearby. She thought it was Helm but barely got a chance to looks before the intern was turning in their heal and moving off towards the doors that separated the O.R from the rest of the hospital. As the intern reached the door, they swung open and Amelia Shepard strode in. She nodded to Bailey and as she reached the head of the man that Bailey wished she knew better before she attempted to kill him, they shared a single glance that said: Save this man. Whatever the cost.

####

Min-jee could not stop pacing. His trainers squeaked on the floor as he turned for what seemed to be the millionth time but he couldn't sit down. He was too stressed. Stressed about Nico. Stressed about his family. Stressed about so many other things that he needed this one thing to go right. He needed his little brother to be okay. He needed to see those eyes open and see that smile that had tormented him throughout his childhood appear. After what seemed like an age, the glass doors slid open and one of the doctors that had talked to him and his family before this whole debacle came out. They flew towards her, throwing a million and one questions towards her. She raised her gloved hand and that's when Min-Jee saw the look on her face. A look that he would not forget for the rest of his life. 

Min-jun looked at that surgeons face and found himself feeling as though he had been hit by a truck. He felt dizzy, almost as if someone had tried to hit him multiple times in the head with a sledgehammer. Surprisingly thorough, he didn't show it but he felt his father next to him take a few steps back. He gripped his elbow and gave it a light squeeze in the hopes that this would reassure his father, who would never want to appear weak. The surgeon pulled down her face mask to reveal an attractive woman and she indicated for the family to follow her down the halls. 

After a seemingly endless journey of hospital corridors and doors that squealed as they opened, the small group eventually reached a small door. The woman stepped aside to allow the four to enter the room first and as Min-jun entered the room, he couldn't help but notice the sign on the door that stated 'Family Room - Do not enter if occupied'. A fleeting thought crossed his mind that this surely didn't mean well for his little brother. He immediately removed that from his mind. He could absolutely not be affording to think like this, could not seem like he was giving up on Nico. He couldn't. Nico has been there for him and now it was his turn to be there for Nico.

#####

Min-jee adjusted her skirt as she sunk down into one of the many recliners in the room. She smoothed out the imaginary creases as she tried to avoid making eye contact with anyone else in the room. She knew what was going through her family's head right at this very moment. Nico, Nico, Nico. The little golden child who could never do wrong. Here he was, suffering and in pain, like he deserved and her family were still acting like the world would stop functioning without him. Could her parents not see that their life had been better before they had decided to have a third kid and now they could go back to having that. To being that perfect little family.

"Would it be alright if I brought Levi in as well?" The surgeon asked. 

"The boyfriend, Dad," Min-jun stayed from across the room. Oh God, Min-jee thought. That little rodent had no business trying to weasel his way into this family. However much Min-jee hated her little brother she had to admit to Nico being way out of that rodents league. No one saw her roll her eyes as her parent made a motion of agreement and the surgeon took a few strides across the room to the door, jerked it open and gestured for someone to come in. The little rat scum scurried his way in, his eyes filling with terror when he saw her in the room. He promptly sat down in the opposite corner of the hospital room and started to twist his hands together. She watched as her mother leaned towards the little runt, gently separated his squirming hands and gave them a small squeeze. Muttering to herself, Min-jee slid further down in her seat.

##### 

Aida kept a tight grip on both her husband's hand and Levi's as she turned to faced the grim faced surgeon standing before them. She took a deep breath before swallowing and saying shakily, 'What happened? Is he okay? Is Nico okay?' The surgeons eyes flashed around the room before replying, 'He's alive. He's in recovery and you'll be able to see him soon once we've transferred him to the ICU. Now I'm sure you want to know why we had to rush Nico into surgery and the reason is that he had two seizures in very quick succession.' Aida felt Levi take in a deep breath and hold in what sounded like a sob. She knew then that whatever was about to come out of this surgeons mouth was not going to be good news. And it wasn't. 'We took him in to see if we could find what had caused these seizures as this was not the first time he has had one.'

"And what did you find?" Aida burst out impatiently. Her hands flew to her mouth and she sat there for a few moments in complete shock. That had been completely unlike her, interrupting someone of importance but then this wasn't a completely normal circumstance. She opened her mouth to issue an apology but all that the doctor did was raise a hand in acknowledgment. "It's fine," she said. "If you think this is the first time I've been interrupted by an anxious parent wanting news on their child, you have another thing coming." Aida let out a small chuckle in response to the surgeons words before making a small gesture to allow her to continue. "We we're unable to find an absolute cause for Nico's seizures but we will continue to search for answers. That I can assure you of. He is in the best possible hands for this kind of situation." She gave them a reassuring smile before standing up and walking to the door. She turned around and smiled sadly at them before saying, "I'm not saying that there is definitely a reason why this is happening but I need you to be prepared that we won't find anything and that Nico will be having seizures for the rest of his life."


	9. Chapter 9

Amelia could heat the scream of pure anguish echoing down the halls. She could hear the heartbreak in that mothers voice and she felt her heart break. She knew that there was nothing that the doctors could do to make her son better. The people who were supposed to be helping, the people who were supposed to be curing the incurable had no answers, no way of keeping her son from having a lifetime of pain and fear and waiting. Waiting for that next seizure, waiting for the next potentially life-changing and life threatening, uncontrollable shaking of his body. Seeing the pain and anguish in his loved ones faces every time he came out of one. She couldn't help it but she felt a tear slip out of the corner of her eye for the family that she could not save.

#####

Levi found the beeping of those machines to be comforting. He never thought he would understand why families spend so much time looking at these machines, trying to decipher things that they could not understand. He understood now. That beeping told him that Nico was still with him, that Nico was still fighting even after brain surgery that had meant that the carefully styled hair that Nico had loved so much had to be shaved off. He allowed a small smile to cross his face at the thought of Nico waking up to his sudden lack of hair. He didn't allow himself to be happy for long, feeling guilty at the feeling. He shouldn't be happy that his boyfriend had to undergo brain surgery, that he would probably have seizures as a result of the stupid car accident for the rest of his life. 

His smile faded even further when he heard a pair of heels clicking into the room. He knew who it was without even turning to look at the person. His suspicions were confirmed when a handbag was flung into the chair opposite him and Nico's sister flung herself into the next chair over. She barely even looked at him, instead choosing to focus on chewing her gum, the pop echoing in the otherwise empty room. Her gaze flickered around the room, finally settling on the machines beeping around her brothers head. The confusion was clear in her eyes, clearly not understanding anything of what the machines were telling her. This confirmed Levi's suspicions that she was as really as toxic as she seemed. It was clear that she didn't understand what was happening with regards to her brother, unlike the rest of her family, who at every opportunity, were asking Levi to explain charts or machines or every little beep and flutter that occurred. 

After a few minutes of chilling silence, Levi decided that he couldn't bear to hear this silence for much longer and decided to get out of there for fear that any more time spent in the presence of this ice witch would turn him into some sort of ice sculpture shaped to her pleasure. He glanced behind him as he left, feeling guilty for levering his boyfriend with her and the image that was burned into his brain was one of her leaning back in her chair and giggling as she tapped away on her phone, presumably to another of her air headed friends who also didn't give a damn that Nico was in here. Levi swallowed the urge to march back into the room and give her something to laugh about but instead, decided to take the high road and turned on his heel and marched away, determined to find a way to get Min-jee out of his life for good. 

#######

Taryn Helm stared down at the clipboard in her hands, not really seeing it, certainly not taking it in. She could hear a faint voice, seeming calling to her. Everything suddenly came into clearer focus when she received a sharp poke in the back. She blinked several times before taking in her surroundings. Dr Shepherd was glaring at her while what appeared to be three family members were sitting next to her, all looking at her with unimpressed looks on their face. Dr Shepherd cleared her throat before saying "Dr Helm, you know what to do?" Taryn nodded rapidly as she responded to Dr Shepherds question. Amelia nodded at her to begin and so she began.

"Nico Kim. 27 years old. 2 day's post op from an exploratory surgery to find the cause of seizures that resulted from head trauma in a 20 car pile up just over a month ago. The results of that surgery were inconclusive so we will be performing a CT scan today as well as an MRI to see if there had been any possible change." 

"That's all Dr Helm," Amelia said as she moved to stand in front of the family. "Now, I know that the last few days have been particularly distressing for you so Dr Helm and I would like to take this opportunity to answer any questions you have regarding Nico's conditions and the treatments that can be offered." As Taryn turned to place her clipboard down on the table near Nico's feet, she saw movement outside the window of the ICU room. She saw a flash of blue scrubs and thought she heard a chocked back sob as her best friend turned on his heels and ran, without anyone to run to and without anyone to give comfort and chase after him.


	10. Chapter 10

It was the middle of the night when Levi Schmitt found his life to be changing forever. He had found himself curled up in the devils creation of the hospitals white, plastic chairs next to Nico's bed that poked him in the back and side no matter which way he decided to sit in the chair. When he looked back on that moment, he found that all that he could remember was that he had been clinging to Nico's hand like that had been the only way for Nico to do so and that by gripping his hand in a death grip, Levi's life force would somehow cross over into Nico and revive him. 

God had heard his prayers that night and Levi had been awoken at 3:00 in the morning by machines screaming at him, telling him that things had changed, that they were no longer stable and that he needed to get up and get help. The nurses had flooded the room, pushing him gently but firmly out of the door despite his protests that he needed to be in the room. That he had promised Nico that he would be by his side no matter what happens. 

He heard Link before he saw him. His laugh echoing through the hallways of the hospital before he rounded the corner of the corridor. His eyes landed on Levi being held back by two nurses, while screaming bloody murder at the medical personnel that were moving in and out of his fellows room. Levi had seen him for the briefest of seconds out of the corner of his eye, saw Link standing there taking the madness all in before breaking out of his stupor and starting to run towards Levi. 

When he arrived at the door to Nico's room, he nodded at the two nurses who were clearly struggling to restrain Levi despite his minute amount of strength. They responded by releasing Levi from their grasp and allowing Link to swoop in and start to mutter in his ear while guiding him towards one of the chairs that were further down the hallway. Levi had started to calm down when Link had appeared but as soon as Link tried to pull him away from the yelling and running that was happening in Nico's room, his small whines started to increase in volume, threatening another meltdown if Link tried to remove him from this situation.

After what had seemed like an eternity to both Levi and Link, the orderlies stopped streaming in and out of the room, the machines were no longer sending out their piercing calls into the night and they received the all clear to enter the room. Neither of them knew what to expect upon entering the room but neither of the expected a pair of brown eyes to be staring owlishly at them from the bed. When Nico's eyes met Levi's, Levi couldn't contain himself from letting out a small squeal, like he was a child again and would have launched himself onto his boyfriend had Link not held him back. At the reproached look he received from Levi, Link pointed to the large cage still encasing his boyfriends leg and stating "Like I'm going to let you ruin my most prized piece of work before it's even had a chance to be used, Schmitt." All he got in response was a cute looking glare off Levi before he settled for placing himself down next to Nico and gently tugging their hands together, neither of them taking their eyes off of each other for a minute. It was almost enough to make Link gag. He tiptoed towards the door, trying desperately to not make any noise. As he slipped out the door, he turned back and let a smile grace his lips as he watched a laugh pass Levi's lips for the first time in seemingly forever.

#####

Apart from those few days from where he had woken up, all Nico Kim could remember about what had happened was blackness. Darkness and the fear that that would consume him for the rest of his life was all that remembered. But now he was awake for good and all he could do was look at the smiling man before him and smile. He fumbled with his hand, eventually reaching his target of his boyfriends hand and giving it a hard squeeze. There was a lot that was trying to be put into that squeeze but Nico just wanted Levi to know that he was here for good now and he wasn't going to leave him again. He tried to communicate this through words but when he opened his mouth, all that came out was a sound that made him sound like he had been swallowing dead frogs for a living. Levi looked at him for a few seconds confused by what he needed, his brow furrowing in a way that Nico found almost endearing. After a few seconds and a weak attempt to point in the direction of the water jug standing on the table in the corner, Levi seemed to get the message and scrambled across the room, almost tripping over himself in his attempt to get there. Nico allowed himself to have a small chuckle before doubling over in a coughing fit. A look of alarm passed over Levi's face and he hurriedly rushes over, glass of water clasped in his hand. As Nico took large gulps, he looked at the small man beside him and decided then and there that he was the luckiest man in the world.

#####

The boredom was starting to kick in for Nico Kim as he picked at the limp looking salad that had been served to him in a poor excuse for lunch. In the few days that had passed since he had woken up he had been unable to do anything that seemed even remotely interesting. He wasn't allowed to start physical therapy yet as Link had yet to give him the all clear to start weight bearing on his mess of a leg so he was bedridden. And as much as Levi tried to convince him otherwise, it was driving him completely and utterly crazy.

Levi had brought in all manner of things for his entertainment which ranged from board games such as snakes and ladders to trying to convince Nico to read Les Miserables, something Nico was still adamant he was not going to do. So now he was stuck, staring at a black TV screen which failed to do anything to alleviate the boredom when he turned it on due to its limited range of channels. Apparently Grey Sloan Memorial hadn't heard of investing in good cable for its bed ridden and bored patients. With a groan of frustration, Nico threw his head back as the door opened and he heard someone slip into the room. A brief smile crossed his lips as he thought about who it could be but it quickly dropped off as he lifted his head and saw who it really was. Min-jee stood there, bright purple lips pulled back in a smile which would sent shivers down even the bravest mans spine.

She casually threw her bag into the nearest chair and strode across the room to where her brother lay. Nico's panic showed as the heart monitor connected to him increased in its beeping, showing his fear to his sister. And his sister pounded on that fear like he knew that she would. He swallowed, feeling his throat go dry. He tried to open his mouth to show that he wasn't scared but he found that his words had failed him.

"Why hello there, little brother!" She whispered, the hatred that she carried for her brother dripping from her words. Nick gulped and the heart monitor began to sound even faster. "Why so scared, Nico? It's just me. Just a concerned sister checking in on her poor, injured little brother. Can't have the baby be alone now can we?" The terror was all consuming, he was alone with her and she was going to hurt him. And he just knew that she was going to hurt him like she had never hurt him before.

######  
The food in the hospital canteen tasted like utter rubbish. That was something that all the interns at Grey Sloan Memorial would tell anyone that would care to listen. So it was of no particular interest to anyone that on their lunch breaks, the interns would be found on their usual beds in the tunnels picking away at the food, while complaint loudly to anyone that would listen that they should steer clear of the canteen on that particular day. This meant that when Casey Parker rounded the corner to the tunnel and his fellow interns, he believed it to be an ordinary day, with nothing seemingly wrong. From the far end of the tunnel, he could hear Quandri singing horrendously off key while she waited for the others to join her. 

As he got closer, he joined in, being just as horrendously off-time as Quandri. Upon hearing Casey's voice join in, Quandri let out a small scream which caused Casey to chuckle. As he clambered onto the bed, he gave her a small nudge, signalling to her to talk about whatever was on her mind. And talk she did. 

Casey heard all that Quandri had been holding in these past few months. Her worries over Levi and the fact that he didn't seem to be taking care of himself. Watching one of their best friends deteriorate in front of them was heart wrenching for all of them but Quandri had always been particularly sensitive to the needs of those around her. By the time Quandri finished she had tears in her eyes and Casey had wrapped his arms around her. Taryn, who has arrived during Quandri's emotion filled talk, gently rubbed her knee. The interns were struggling. They all were but they were going to be there. Be there for each other and for Levi and Nico. Because they cared and they were not going to let anyone suffer alone. 

######

Miranda Bailey hated her job sometimes. She really did. If there was not some immediate crisis that demanded her attention, there were feuds between doctors, relationships going south or one of her own medical staff becoming one of her patients. And she was in the position of having the fourth option. And it just had to be in her most short staffed department because she had apparently done some bad stuff to annoy God and he was now enacting his revenge by making her suffer. She sure as hell hoped he was happy, the twisted old man. 

She was sat in her office, mulling over if she needed to recruit another attending to help Link out in the orthopaedic department when she heard a knock at the door. She gestured for whoever it was to enter and the door creaked open as Meredith Grey entered the room. Without saying anything, Miranda gestured to a chair and Meredith took it, muttering a thanks. After a few seconds of silence, Miranda gave Meredith a small glare before signing, closing up the folders in front of her and crossing her arms. "Are you planning on talking Grey or are we going to sit here wasting both of our precious time when we both could be doing something more productive?" This seemed to jump Meredith into action and Miranda watched as she reaches into the pocket of her jeans and brought out a folded up piece of paper. Bailey took the offered paper and opened it. What she saw would haunt her for the rest of her days.


	11. Chapter 11

Miranda found her hands shaking as she walked down the hall. She couldn't do this could she? She couldn't cause this family any more pain than what they were already going through. But she had to. She was the Chief of Surgery. She was in charge of this hospital and why all the hard choices had to be made by her. And this was one of those hard choices that her job required her to do. Reaching the door to the ICU room, she peaked in through the window before entering. Nico was lying in the bed, hand clenching and unclenching on top of the sheet. It was clear that he was in pain. Miranda knew from the regular updates that she demanded Amelia, Link and their team of nurses give her, that he had been maxed out on pain medication almost an hour ago.

Her heart broke for him. Nico Kim was not one to let anyone see his pain and suffering so by the simple fact that he was visibly in pain and letting people know meant that the pain must be extreme. Not to Miranda's surprise, Levi was there, curled up in the chair like a cat. His fingers were gently running through Nico's hair, clearly trying to sooth the pain. It was clearly ineffective but perhaps, Levi had been doing it for more than just pain relief. Perhaps he was doing it as a comforting gesture. To let Nico know that he was there and wasn't going to leave him as well as reassuring himself that his boyfriend was alive and well. Miranda closed her eyes, sending a quick prayer to God before pushing open the door. Levi's gaze flew immediately to the door, seeing if the person that was entering required him to move from his boyfriends side. 

On seeing that it was Miranda, he moved to nudge Nico and persuade him to open his eyes. Miranda stopped him before that, gesturing to him to curl back up in his chair. She let a small smile cross her lips as Levi resettled, placing his hand in Nico's and giving it a small squeeze. It reminded her of her and Ben in the early day's of their relationship, young and full of hope. Prepared to face whatever the future had to throw at them. She sat down on a chair in the corner of the room and opened up the file that Meredith had given her.

She saw Levi's eyes flicker anxiously to the small folder and she gave him a weak smile. There was no way that she could soften the blow so she knew she had to get it out now, otherwise she never would. Letting out a sigh, Miranda opened her mouth and said, "Levi, Nico if your listening." Nico's eyes slowly flittered open at this point and in his sleepiness , his eyes drifted around the room for a few seconds before landing on Miranda. He gave her a pain filled nod to continue so she ploughed on before her courage abandoned her. "Nico, there is a possibility that your family could be going bankrupt." She could see the confusion fill his eyes. Her heart broke at the fact that she had to deliver this news but she decided to spare him pain further down the line and to tell him the full story. "The company that your parents insured you on when you turned eighteen went under about five months ago, just a few months before this accident of yours happened. The medical bills that you've created by being in here have been paid by them but they can't pay them anymore. They have nothing left."

The pain that was visible on Nico's face broke Miranda's heart even more than she already thought it could break. The poor boy didn't need any more suffering that what he had been through and what was already in front of him and Miranda hated to add to that pain and to that burden. She moved from the corner in which she had been sat and went to go stand by Nico. Up close, she could see more clearly the tears that were threatening to spill from Nico's eyes and how hard the boy was fighting to not let them. Not to show any weakness, not in front of anyone. She picked up the hand that Levi's was not occupying and gave it a tight squeeze, trying to convey a thousand emotions in a single second. Trying to convey courage, hope and the strength to get through the crap that life had decided to through at this kid. She honestly couldn't see any of her staff go through more heartbreak and drama and upset. It would kill her for sure, to lose someone, no matter who it was.

###

Alex Karev hated board meetings. It was a well known fact at Grey Sloan Memorial that every time that there was a board meeting, the complaints of Alex Karev could be heard through the hallways. Without fail, they would always bore him to tears and he would find himself doodling on scrap pieces of paper or writing little messages to Meredith and passing them under the table like he was sixteen and back in high school. But there was something different about this board meeting. He knew it as soon as he had dragged his feet through the door and found himself on the receiving end of a Miranda Bailey glare that he had not received since his intern years. That look alone had been enough to send shivers down his spine and make him want to curl up in the corner of the room. He slid into his chair, pouting and glanced across the table at Meredith, who sent him a supporting smile that was clearly telling him to behave himself.

When Owen and Amelia had appeared, Miranda firmly closed the door. "I would like to start this meeting straight away with a proposal about Nico Kim." Alex looked around the room to see the same confusion that he felt written on the faces of the other board members. Miranda flapped her hands in an effort to get their attention back on her and launched into her proposal. "As some of you may be aware, a few months before the car pile up that injured our orthopaedic fellow Nico Kim, his insurance company filed for bankruptcy. Now Nico has had no idea about any of this until a few hours ago and his family has been paying for his medical bills up until now." 

Alex put his hand up at this point confused about where Miranda was planning to go with this speech. "Yes, Alex?" Miranda sighed clearly preparing herself for what the question was. 

"While I'm sure every one in this room feels for Nico and what he and his family is going through, I'm sure that I speak for everyone when I say what on earth has this situation got to do with the board of this hospital?"

"Because Devil Spawn, if you'd let Dr Bailey finish, you would find that she's asking this hospital to do a fundraiser in order to raise money to go towards Nico's treatment," Meredith snapped from across the table. That caused Alex to lean back in his chair in shock, letting out a large sigh as his mind processed the new information. Owen leaned forward and asked "What sort of fundraiser did you have in mind, Doctor Bailey?"

Bailey looked rejuvenated at Owens comment, almost as if the life had been breathed back into her. Rushing towards her large stack of papers and folders, she started to flick through the pile and started to hand out information packets to all at the table. "I do have a few ideas on how we can get started and after that, we can assess which had the most impact and managed to raise the most money and go from there. I thought that we could start out with something simple such as a charity auction. We could all bring in things such as unwanted clothes, presents. Maybe even some old books. Meredith could bring in some kids stuff that Ellis, Bailey and Zola don't use anymore to try and appeal to a larger audience base in terms of getting families involved as well. Ben has offered to get some of the guys from his station to do a bit of cooking and we can sell the food outside the hospital at some sort of food truck type thing. Dr Karev I was hoping that you would do a cake sale in the peds department. Little kids and cake is always a sure combination as I'm sure that any parent in the room would agree." Miranda has managed to get all of this out in what seemed to be a single breath and turned to look at them all with a hopeful expression on her face. 

Owen was the first to react, leaning forward in his chair and shuffling the papers in front of him before responding with "I'll get the ball started. I'm in. Whatever you need me to do I'll do as long as everyone else sat at this table agrees." His eyes looked around the table, locking in Alex's. Alex could almost feel the desperation rolling off Owen in waves as he silently pleaded with him to join him in what Bailey has proposed. He sighed deeply before sitting up from where he had been slumped in his chair and leaning toward Owen to meet his stare. "I'm in. As long as you don't try to drag me into something that involves me getting my clothes off." He heard a light chuckle go around the table at this comment. "So that's that everyone. Now has anyone else have anything to bring to this board meeting?"

#######

Levi was pacing the small basement room of his mothers house and muttering almost wildly to himself when his mother entered carrying a cup of tea in her hands. Her concern for her son was clearly etched on her face, her frown lines deeper than normal. This had been the first time that she has seen Levi at home since the accident that had landed his boyfriend in hospital almost two months ago. Even though she had met the boy only once, she could tell that he had been smitten for her boy and her boy smitten for him. And now, watching her son go through all of this pain for love was making her heart break. Levi and her had always had a special relationship where they had been more like best friends than mother and son and it had hurt when Levi had felt uncomfortable about telling her his sexuality. But she had been determined to make sure that he had felt comfortable ever since he had told her. And she was proud of the man she saw in the room before her. As she opened her mouth to alert him to her presence, she saw him wobble, stumble and then collapse.


	12. Chapter 12

Levi woke up dazed and confused. The last thing that he remembered was being in his basement room but now he appeared to be in a room of total darkness. He began to panic, his mind almost immediately going to the worst conclusions. He'd been kidnapped he knew it. What for he didn't know. His family weren't well off and it certainly wasn't his connection to the Kims. They were nearly bankrupt after all. While he was panicking, he noticed the room start to come into focus with a few details starting to make themselves known. He saw the outline of a large vase of flowers, that he was sure would be hideous in daylight. There was faint voices coming from outside his room, accompanied by the sound of squealing shoes and the creak of machines being moved around. Rolling his head, he saw a person curled up like a cat in a chair near him, hand limply on the bed, almost as if they had been holding his hand before they had fallen asleep. It took him a few seconds to realise that the human shape was his mother and that he was lying in a hospital bed. He felt the panic start to creep up on him and the heart monitor next to him started to beep louder and louder until it became a screaming in his ears. His mother woke with a jolt, panic in her eyes as she saw her son seemingly having a panic attack in front of her. She sat there for a few seconds, blinking owlishly at him for a few seconds before what was happening in front of her seemed to register with her and she leapt to her feet. Reaching over his head with one hand and running the other through his sweaty curls in a soothing motion she hit the call button and a few seconds later, the door was flung open and light came bursting into the room. Being forced to blink a few times to allow his eyes to adjust to the new situation forced his confusion to increase even further and his breathing began to quicken even more. He began to claw at his chest trying to scrape off the seemingly tightening feeling of his chest at the risk of pulling out some of his IV lines that were snaking into his skin. The nurses fluttered at him, mouths moving but Levi couldn't make out what they were saying. Perhaps they were telling him to calm down, perhaps to stop what he was doing or he would end up doing more damage. Either way he didn't know what they were saying, the sound of his own heartbeat thudding in his ears accompanied by the harsh sounds of his breathing. The nurses must have managed to insert something into his IV line in the panic to sedate him as the next thing that he knew, his eyes were starting to droop and his body was starting to become heavy. And he let himself slip back into the darkness.

The next time that he woke, it was to his mother gently running her fingers through his hair and was quietly humming a tune to herself. Levi vaguely recognised the tune as one that his mother used to sing to him when he had had a nightmare and hadn't wanted to be left alone for fear of the nightmare coming back. He blinked sluggishly for a few minutes just watching his mother be lost in her own little world before she turned to look at him and found him to be awake. He watched as her face brightened and her smile gave him comfort. He managed to croak out, "What happened Mum? Why am I here? When can I see Nico? Is Nico okay? Has he had another seizure?" His onslaught of questions was only stopped by his need to draw in breath and his mother saw the opportunity for preventing another bombardment of questions and jumped in before he could open his mouth again. "Nico is absolutely fine, sweetie. You'll have to take my word for it but his mother stopped by while you were asleep to give me an update while you were asleep. You, on the other hand, have given your poor old mother a full head of grey hair after what you've put me through in the last 24 hours. You collapsed last night right while I was bringing you a cup of tea to have a good old chin wag and you had to go and collapse on me. Now before you get into your doctor mindset, the doctors here have already been running some tests and there is still some tests that need to come back but they say that the most likely cause of you collapsing was actually stress. I don't know how many times I've had to tell you over the last few months to take care of yourself. Nico hasn't been the only important one here."

Levi just nodded, feeling embarrassment rise up through his cheeks. He'd never meant to upset his mother. She was the one person in the world that he could not stand to see cry and had in fact always burst into tears whenever he had seen his mother cry. He started to twist the thin blanket in his hands, trying to think of a way to tell his mother of what he had been planning. He'd ran through almost every option in his head when he felt his mother place her hands on top of his twisting ones and gently grabbed hold of his chin and tugged his head up so that he was looking at her in the eyes. "Tell me sweetie. What's going on in that pretty little head that's making you so worried?"

Levi was silent for a few seconds before the dam broke and it all came flooding out, "Bailey came to me yesterday to say that they were going to do a load of fundraising to help pay for Nico's treatment. But I don't think it's going to be enough. I spent all day thinking and the only thing that came to mind was Dr Altman telling me a story about how she married so a guy could use her insurance. I think I may need to marry Nico."


	13. Chapter 13

Myrna Schmitt could only sit and gawk at her son. For the possible first time ever in her life she was at a loss for words on what to say. Her son had proposed marriage to a man that he had known for a little over six months and she was totally shellshocked. She was sure that this was not the son that she had raised for over twenty years. She had raised a geeky, kind boy who would stutter endlessly before getting to the point that he had been trying to explain for ten minutes. Here before her lay a man who was seemingly confided in himself as well as his actions which had made her almost feel like pressing her hand to his forehead like she had done when he was little to see if he was running a temperature that was making him spout this nonsense. But this was her son, she knew that. This was the boy that she had raised to be kind and selfless and loving. The kind of man that a person had needed in their life even if it was just for a few seconds to brighten their day.

She was shaken out of her half monologue when there was a knock at the door and a tall blond man entered the room. "Sorry to disturb the two of you but, Levi, Nico's been asking about you ever since we heard what happened and since I can't clear him to come and visit you yet, I told him that I would come and personally check on you myself." At the look of confusion on Myrna's face, the man chuckled to himself and walked further into the room before sticking out a hand in Myrna's direction. "I'm Atticus Lincoln but everyone calls me Link. I'm Nico's boss and the Head of Orthopaedics here." Myrna just smiled politely, unsure of the man that had seemingly dominated the room before taking his hand and giving it a small shake. Letting go of her hand she watched as he not so gently threw himself into a chair with a force that threatened to break the chair before launching into a story for the benefit of Levi. She didn't understand half of what he was saying, taking the assumption of the story he was telling involving some of their mutual colleagues in the hospital but she could tell by the sheer amount of hand gestures that were being used and the smile that was creeping onto Levi's face that it was an entertaining story. He would be alright surely? She surely hoped so. But she didn't know if his happiness lay with Nico Kim and not what had been staring at him in the face all of this time.

######

Min-jee giggles as she sunk into a chair opposite her latest boy toy. She had to admit, the boy was a little below her standards but she had been desperate to find a way to get out of the hospital and her family constantly breathing down her neck. So when she had seen this awkward little man come stumbling down the hospital hallway that she vaguely recognised as having gone to school with, she'd known almost immediately what she had to do. He had noticed her almost immediately which had been hardly surprising when she had managed to convince her mother to take them both home so that she could stop smelling like three day old fish and getting some clothes that didn't make her look like an oversized smurf. He'd given her that awkward half wave that he had been known for in the days of primary school and she had played her part well, batting her eyelids and simpering at him. 

She looked back on that and felt ashamed of herself. She had really been that desperate to escape her family that she had agreed to go on a date with a guy that she had swore in middle school that she would have died before even contemplating going out with him. But she truly had been desperate. Her family would never have let her just leave the precious little baby of the family so her next best move had been to get someone to get her out of here. Her friends had all been back home in Korea and Italy and it had clearly been the universe sending her a message that she was supposed to be getting out of there when Carl Pickering walked into her life once again. 

Of course, her mother had given her that scathing look that she always gives her whenever she does something that even remotely sounds like it might be fun and she should be instead doing something boring. But as she had whispered to her mother, who had always been a mother to insist on her children being well mannered, it would be rude to tell Carl that she would be unable to go on a date with him when he was standing in the doorframe of her brothers hospital room, clutching a bouquet of tulips like his life had depended on that bunch of flowers.

And now, she just had to find a way to get out of this stupid date because she had clearly not thought this part of her plan through properly before beginning to implement it. She decided to try escaping the old fashion way. She made her excuses before heading in the direction of what seemed to be the location of the toilet. As soon as she was out of sight of the table where she and Carl had been sitting she quickly diverted and slipped through the kitchen apologising to the chefs profusely as she did so. Once out of the back door she slipped out of the alleyway and onto the main road. It was not long before she reached her destination and where her brothers would finally feel an ounce of her pain.


	14. Chapter 14

Min-jun had a feeling that this was going to be a very bad day. He couldn't explain the feeling that was bubbling away in his gut but it was the same feeling that he had gotten just minutes before he had the call from his parents to say that Nico had been in a car crash that had almost killed him. So God help him if he was going to ignore this feeling again. He knew it probably had something to do with his sister. It had been great when they had all been younger. They had been the perfect example of siblings who got along and enjoyed each other's company. That had all changed when Min-jee had turned 18 and their parents had taken her into a room by herself, sat her down and told her something that changed the dynamic of their relationship entirely. He can remember that for days afterwards Min-her would be lying in her room, crying and screaming at her brothers. 

Something had changed in Min-jee that day and she had never let it go. She refused to tell Min-jee or Nico what they had supposedly done. All they knew was that whatever it was it was enough to make her want to make their lives a living hell. It had started out small, slashing car tyres so they couldn't get to work or school on time before escalating to physical violence wherever their parents were not around. She'd given them burns, scars and any manner of psychical pain with the twisted logic of whenever they asked why, replying that she wanted them to feel an ounce of the pain that she had been feeling on a daily basis. 

And now Min-jee was almost certain that she was up to something. He didn't know what but he knew that he couldn't under any circumstances let it happen. Nico was already in enough pain and suffering enough to have his sister cause any more damage to his broken body. He couldn't even sit up properly without his pain being visible to everyone in the room. Min-jee had to protect him. His sisters twelve year reign of terror was finally going to be over. Min-Jew was going to be sure of that. And he had to start where it all began. With the people who had started this in the first place: their parents.

####

Aida Kim blew on her steaming coffee before cautiously sipping at it. Wincing as it came into contact with her tongue, she turned towards her husband of forty years and gave him what could only be considered to be a insecure smile. She reached for his hand with her empty one and gave it a reassuring squeeze. She knew how much he hated being here. How much he hated being in hospitals. How much it reminded them both what they had lost. But they had both needed to be strong because their son needed them and if that meant having to be in a place where they had seen so much pain and heartbreak then so be it. Moving to stand up from the small table in the cafeteria where they had been sitting, Aida saw her oldest son marching towards her with what seemed to be the angriest expression she had ever seen on him. She tried desperately to think of any reason as to why her son may look as if he was seriously considering murdering his parents in the middle of the hospital cafeteria. Only one thing came to mind and Aida tried to reassure herself that this couldn't possibly be the explanation for Min-Jee's actions. He couldn't know, could he?

While all this was racing through her head, Min-jun had marched up to the table where she was sat and angrily flung himself into a seat opposite his parents. The loud screeching of the chair as it scraped along the tiles brought the attention of several other customers to their table and Aida plastered a smile on her face that would have been picked up as a smile that was hiding something from a mile away. The customers muttered among themselves, seemingly for an age, before giving up and turning back to their own conversations. Min-jun during this time had pulled his chair up to the table, rolled his sleeves up his arms and was leaning on his elbows, clearly expecting his parents to answer some questions they clearly knew. After a few minutes of stoney silence, Min-jun was clearly getting frustrated and eventually was unable to maintain the silence and burst out with something that neither Aida or her husband was expecting, "what did you tell Min-jee all those years ago. When she turned eighteen. What possible reason could she have to suddenly start hating Nico and I. What on earth did we do?"

Aida swallowed, not wanting to admit the answer to her son. She glanced at her husband and she sensed Min-jun tense up. He clearly sensed that this was an answer that he didn't want to hear but when she turned back to look at him, she was on the receiving end of one of his hard stares. She finally responded with something that she knew would change her sons life forever: "Min-jee was adopted. Her parents died when she was little. You and Nico were responsible for it."


	15. Chapter 15

Min-jun couldn't speak for several minutes. His mind flew over the events of his childhood trying to remember a time where Min-jee wasn't in his family. It wasn't true surely? He was the oldest sibling out of the three Kim children. He would remember his parents bringing a child into the house without his mum being pregnant. 

He felt so stupid. Suddenly, he found that he could no longer be with his parents and had to get out of there. He stood up from the table and ignoring the shouts of protest from his parents, marched out of the cafeteria and towards his brothers room. Upon reaching his brothers room he was about to burst the door open and tell Nico what he had discovered when something told him to stop. He creaked the door open slightly and was greeted with the sight of Levi running his hand gently through his brothers hair while singing an old lullaby that Min-Jew vaguely remembered from his own childhood. The scene was so surreal that Min-jee almost didn't want to break it but he knew that he had to. Nico had a right to know about his sister, especially since Min-her was almost certain that she was going to try something in the next few hours or days. He just knew. 

#### 

Levi honestly didn't want this moment to end. Nico had woken up with a nasty headache just over an hour ago but being Nico Kim, was refusing to admit that he needed help and was refusing all that was being offered to him. Levi had watched as he refused offer after offer of pain relief and therefore sitting there with his eyes squeezed shut and his hands turning white as he gripped the bedsheets. Levi had eventually refused to watch this behaviour continue but knowing Nico was too proud to admit that he was wrong and wanted the pain relief, Levi had known he would have to find a different solution to the problem. So he had shut all the blinds apart from the one on the door to ensure that he could still signal to any nurses passing by if he needed and pulled up a chair beside Nico's bed. Nico sent him a funny look out of the corner of his eyes, almost asking him what on earth he was doing. He let out a small chuckle before reaching up to his boyfriends head and gently running his hand through his hair. Nico made what could only be described as a purring noise and Levi had to fight the urge to burst into a fit of giggles. After a few minutes, Nico was on the verge of falling back to sleep, soothed by the hand running through his hair that was now being accompanied by Levi recalling a sweet lullaby of old when the door let them know that someone was trying to slip into the room. 

Levi watched as Nico's eyes flew back open before seeing who was entering and allowing there to be a smile. Levi knew from this smile that it was probably one of two people that had entered the room when he saw this smile. Only two people made Nico smile like that: his brother Min-jun and Link. A quick look over his shoulder confirmed that it was Min-jun but he could tell from the opposite end of the room that something bad had happened. Min-Jun's features were haggard and drawn back like he suddenly had the weight of the world on his shoulders. Nico motioned for his brother to move towards the bed and Min-jun did so almost unwillingly. This is bad, very, very bad, Levi kept thinking to himself. 

After a few moments that Levi would later recall as the most intense of his life, Min-Jun opened his mouth and began to talk. And talk he did. Levi could only watch on in amazement as it came tumbling out of Min-jun. How their parents had been lying to them. How Min-jee was adopted. And perhaps worst of all, how Min-jun and Nico were apparently responsible for her parents death. Levi could see the gears turning in Nico's head as he tried to think over his childhood and any events that may have caused the death of two people. After a few minutes a look of horror came onto his face and Levi just squeezed his hand reassuringly. "The ball" he whispered. Those two words didn't mean anything to Levi but they clearly meant something to Min-jun as all the blood drained out of his face. "Oh god". He whispered. "So it is true then. We really did kill Min-Jee's parents." Levi just sat there feeling even more confused than when this whole revelation emerged and before he could open his mouth to ask the brothers what they were talking about, the window exploded. 

####

Levi woke to a ringing in his ears and a blinding white light. Didn't his mother used to tell him that the white light would be a sign that he was going to heaven? A few seconds later, he managed to establish that he was, in fact, not in heaven when the ringing in his ears started to subside and voices started to trickle through. He heard the yelling first and then began to identify the person behind the voice. Link could be heard yelling faintly in the distance, while the voices that he thought belonged to Owen, Meredith and Alex could be heard much more clearly. What they were saying however, Levi was not completely sure.

He managed to finally peel his eyes open after what seemed to be at least a few hours and was greeted to the sight of his friends rushing around, overlapping instructions pouring out of their mouths. They were grabbing units of blood, gauze, anything that they could get their hands on and racing towards the two resus rooms. That's when the memory of what happened started to flood back. The window shattering. The loud bangs that made his ears scream with pain. The yelling that came from so many different voices that Levi could not distinguish between them. He couldn't tell who was being hit by what he now established to be gunshots. He just remembers the confusion as he dropped to the floor before realising that Nico was an easy target. Nico couldn't get off of his bed and all Levi can remember doing is screaming for Nico until his voice was gone and his throat was throbbing with pain. And then he remembers the flash of light, the blinding pain and the darkness that followed.

He is jerked from his memories by someone shaking his shoulder. He jumps slightly before turning to look at whoever it was and being greeting with the sight of an anxious looking Casey flanked by Quandri and Taryn. All of them looked as though they had not slept in the past week and looked as haggard as Levi felt. Once they saw that Levi was responding, all three flew at him and surrounded him in a hug which caused him to yelp in pain. That only made the situation worse as this seemed to activate the mother hen mode of all three of his friends and they flew at him, asking him a million and one questions of which he heard none of them. He just stares blankly at them until the haunted loom that he imagines that he's giving them shuts them up. Once they had all quietened down, he tried to ask them about Min-Jun and Nico. Tried to ask them if they were sill alive but all he managed to get out was a painful croak. This croak had all three rushing for the water pitcher at the side of his bed in an attempt to pour him a glass. Within a few seconds of him emitting that pitiful sound, a glass full of water was being presented to him with a coloured straw sticking out of the top. Levi reached for it and briefly spent a couple of seconds having a vicious battle with the straw to try and get it in his mouth. Once he had done so, and might he had that he was feeling particularly proud of himself for that, he attempted again to try and let his friends know of his concern.

After a few unsuccessful attempts, he managed to croak out, "Nico and Min-jun. Are they okay? What happened? In fact, am I okay?" They all shared a look among themselves that had Levi's heart dropping into his feet. Something was wrong. He knew it. There was something they were reluctant to tell him about what happened but he would be damned if he didn't manage to wrangle whatever it was out of them. So when they turned their eyes back to Levi, they were greeted with an arched eyebrow and Levi's best death start, which they would later say wasn't really that threatening at all. A few seconds of elbowing each other and muttered "you tell him"'s resulted in a fidgeting Casey step forward and launch into the story that would help fill in the gaps in Levi's head. According to Casey, the explosion in the window, which was the last thing that Levi could remember, was caused by multiple gunshots being fired through the window. Levi had apparently dropped to the floor along with Min-jun while Nico had tried to curl himself into a ball on his bed. "Nico and Min-jun are both in critical condition," Casey said with a gesture towards the two resus rooms which still had people streaming in and out. "You were lucky, Levi," Taryn piped up, drawing his attention back to his friends. "You are only grazed but you tried to get to Nico and you were clipped by a stray bullet to the head. That's what knocked you unconscious." Levi felt his hand slowly drift towards his head to feel the bandage that covered his head. As his hand drifted back down towards the bed, there was a commotion coming from the resus rooms. There were medical personnel streaming towards the rooms while an alarm stared to blare overhead. Levi started to pull his blankets off of himself, determined to get to those rooms. He had to know. They couldn't stop him knowing. Because that alarm only meant one thing. In one of those rooms, either the love of his life or Min-jun was dying. And he didn't know which one.


	16. Chapter 16

The panic was rising in his chest. It was closing up his airway, making it so that he couldn't breath, which only made him panic worse. The various monitors that were attached to him started to beep faster and faster, reaching a point where they were screaming in his ears. He couldn't take anymore and reached blindingly for the wires, pulling any that he could find away from his body, ripping them from his skin. He could neither see or hear his friends though he could still feel them grabbing at him and trying to pull him back. They didn't understand. Of course they didn't understand. You couldn't understand unless you'd been through it yourself which was why Levi resisted them with all his might. That could be Nico in there, dying and Levi had to get to him if it was. He had to remind him that he was loved, that he was still needed here on Earth, that even though they had only been official for a matter of months, Levi already knew that he was the one and he didn't want to be alone and without Nico. He swung his legs out of the bed and was only stopped from getting up by Casey suddenly appearing in front of him and grabbing his shoulders. He directed a furious gaze at Casey and Casey returned the gaze with a simple shake of his head. It was clear that he wouldn't be going anywhere. 

#####

Owen Hunt knew he was in trouble as soon as he heard that sound that all doctors dreaded. The sound of the heart monitor letting out a single note and someone calling out for the code blue team. But this time hurt the most. Because this time, he was looking into the face of someone he knew and he knew that this moment would haunt him for the rest of his days, perhaps even more than Megan. This time, when the code blue was called out, it was for a healthy young man that didn't deserve any of what he was going through. He was snapped out of his horror as he got elbowed on the ribs as his team tried frantically to work around their frozen leader. Realising what was happening, he let his instincts take over and let out a series of instructions to which his team immediately responded to. God help him if he was to let Nico Kim die on his table yet again.

####

Link could feel the anger rising in his chest as he ran through the corridors of Grey Sloan. What had anyone at the hospital done to anger God so much that he decided to try and put them through hell? 

He'd been at home when he got the call about what had happened to Min-jun and Nico. He'd ordered from that Chinese around the corner that he loved and was just sinking into his couch when the phone has rang. Amelia has been greeted to a string of curse words as Link answered while trying to pick food off of his shirt. None of that mattered when Link heard the words "Nico and Min-jun have been shot," come out of Amelia's mouth. He'd raced out of the house without even bothering to try and change his shirt and driven as fast as he could to the hospital. 

It had been chaos when he had arrived. He had attempted to arrive through the ambulance bay, knowing that that was the quickest way towards Resus and Nico. His attempt had been cut off almost immediately as he reached the hospital and a stream of ambulances began to overtake him. The radio announced a few moments later that there had been a major incident on one of Seattle's busiest roads. Link sighed and went to manoeuvre his car into an illegal U turn to approach the other entrance to Grey Sloan, knowing that there would be a steady stream of ambulances heading towards Grey Sloan for the rest of the night. 

He found a parking space close to the doors leading into the hospital and had found himself racing through the familiar hallways and corridors to get to Resus and to get to his best friend who needed him now more than ever. Perhaps even more than when he had been caught in that pile up that had landed them in this whole mess in the first place. But when he arrived, he knew his place was not at Nico's side but rather Levi's. The boy had clearly been in distress for quite a while, screaming at the other interns while trying desperately to fight them at every turn. Link knew why he was fighting them so desperately, could hear the cries of 'clear' coming from one of those two little rooms but he had to not be selfish and prioritise Levi. He stepped up to the interns, one sporting a nasty looking cut on their cheek, and grabbed Levi's failing hands in his. As he did so, he heard the shouts stop from within the room and one look at Levi's eyes told him everything. He dropped Levi's hands and flew across the emergency apartment to fling the door to that room open. His eyes were greeted with Owen looking at the clock on the wall and announcing, "Time of death: 11:35." And there on the bloodied table lay the body of Min-jun.

#####  
The sound of the monotone beep would be remembered by everyone in that room for the rest of their lives. They had failed. It was inevitable in their careers in the medical field that they would lose patients but it never lessened the pain no matter how many they lost. They had lost a young man at the beginning of his life. A young man who had only been trying to protect his little brother and they had added to the pain of him. 

Owen had seen Link come bursting into the room as he has called the time of death. Knew that he was not the only one that was relieved that it was not Nico's time of death that was being called but both felt their hearts breaking at the thought of the new emotional pain that Nico would go through. They both know that Nico would hold himself responsible for his brothers death for the rest of his life and no one could change that. Deep down they were glad that Nico was the one that was currently still fighting for his life but the overriding emotion that they were both experiencing was guilt at the pain that they had placed at the door of this young man. Owen have a nod to the scrub nurse that was closest to Min-kin's head and she lifted the sheet that had been covering his body so that it covered his head in one final act of respect from the people who had tried so fruitlessly to save his life. 

####

Amelia was having the time of her life. Not only did she have to deal with trying to save Nico Kim's life all over again, life has apparently decided that that task was too easy and granted her the present of Nico having three seizures in quick succession. She could feel the panic rising in her chest. His life was in her hands again and she could not lose him this time. She didn't know him as well as she would like, having barely interacted with him as whenever she had needed an orthopaedic consult, she had always tried to ensure that it was Link that came. She regrets that now of course, seeing the bond between Link and Nico and seeing the older mans concern for every minute that the younger had spent suffering in hospital. And here he was again, hooked up to another ventilator, heart monitor beeping rapidly and Amelia standing over him and being responsible for whether he lived or died. 

The door burst open and more people spilled into the already overcrowded room. Amelia recognised Owen almost immediately, the man being almost impossible to miss in the fact that he was almost a foot taller than anyone else in the room. And the minute she saw him standing there, she knew that he had lost Nico's brother. Knew that she now had to keep their other son alive in order to try and ensure that the Kim family didn't suffer any more than they already had to. 

#####

Levi woke in a complete daze. He didn't know what had happened or even where he was. The last thing that was clear in his mind was Link suddenly appearing and restraining him as he had tried to fight his way to Nico. Now he was in what looked to be one of Grey Sloans many side rooms and he didn't know how he got there. He ran a quick assessment of his body and found a small patch of cotton taped down with a small patch of sellotape in the crook of his arm. Now Levi hadn't spent the last seven years of his life training to become a medical professional to know what had happened. He had clearly been drugged to calm him down. Levi didn't remember much apart from Link and Casey being there so it was obviously Link that had had the idea of drugging him as Casey wouldn't dare to dream to do that to one of his friends. Levi suddenly remember Casey. He'd hurt him, dragged his nails across his friends cheek and left a nasty looking cut that would surely scar. He knew that he had to find Casey to apologise before getting him to take him to wherever Nico was. He had to know if he was even alive. 

As soon as Levi went to remove the wires from his body, an alarm started to scream and his door was flung open by frantic looking nurses and Link who clearly thought that he would get trying to escape again. Levi started to sob as soon as he saw Link and the man rushed over to swallow him in a giant hug. Levi lay like that for what seemed like hours, dampening the material of Links shirt until he seemed to fall asleep. When he next woke up, he wasn't alone. In the next bed was Nico, sound asleep and very much alive. Levi slipped his hand out of his bed and managed to intertwine their fingers together. They were still together to see another day through.


End file.
